Windows 8′s Greatest Sin

Interviewing companies about their plans to move to Windows 8 less than a month after it's released?

Of course the numbers are going to be low. I would be surprised if 1/3 of the people interviewed had ever even seen the product.

Companies are known for keeping old software as long as humanly possible, not turning on a dime to adopt something that just hit the marketplace.

The author then follows with a bunch of conjecture focused on how individuals make decisions, but corporations are not individuals, and don't make decisions like "maybe I should just buy a mac" on a whim.

There are lots of things to consider like your current system architecture, your employee's skillsets, corporate software, the cost of purchasing hundreds or thousands of new machines, etc. etc.

So what are you trying to analyze, individual decision making or corporate decision making? Because the two are completely different.

This article is literally the bottom of the barrel when it comes to tech news, and I hate that I took time out of my day to read it.

The problem with applying this line of thinking to Windows 8 is that these days, for Windows, are not "most circumstances." Customers' routines have already been disrupted, they are already looking at other peoples' alternatives, and many are choosing them. So for Microsoft the issue isn't whether or not to let the gravy train roll on undisturbed, it's to do something to keep at least some of the gravy from spilling out.

The cause of this disruption is two-fold -- first, the beginnings of a massive platform shift from PCs to mobile devices, and second, the feeling among most Windows users ever since XP or so that the Windows they already have is "good enough." This puts Microsoft in the awkward position of competing against both competitors with superior offerings for those customers who want something radically different, and themselves for those customers who are change-averse.

All of which is why, in this particular case, just quietly sitting pat would have been a bad idea. It's debatable whether Windows 8 is the product that will square this circle -- that will make Microsoft relevant again to both those who want massive change, and those who want none at all -- but what I don't think is debatable is that they needed to at least try to create such a product if they wanted to defend their position in the marketplace.

(Whether that product should have been called "Windows" is another story, but that's a subject for a separate rant.)

> "This forced Netflix’ customers to re-evaluate their subscription plans. And when they chose, many of them chose to cancel their subscriptions altogether."

Not sure how you can attribute the cancellations to "forcing customers to re-evaluate" and completely brush over the fact that the price went up 60%.

Whilst this may happen more often that it used to, Windows still has some important advantages.

Apple stuff is expensive, in the UK a Mac Mini will cost you at least £500 whereas a cheap dell powerful enough to run Office and other apps can be had for less than £200.

Microsoft also has an complete eco-system with Windows Server & Exchange etc as well as client OSs and has an army of professionals who are highly trained in these specific tools.

One of the big reasons IT depts love Windows Server is the amount of fine-grained control it can give over permissions on Windows clients as well as IE etc, there is also extensive third party tooling built around this.

As far as I am aware there isn't really an out of the box solution that provides this sort of thing in the Mac world.

There may be a lot of small businesses who can swap a Windows Server for a bunch of Mac (or even Ubuntu) boxes and a dropbox account + web apps. On the other hand I'm not sure Fortune 500s are exactly dying to put all of their data at the mercy of google etc.

1. Do people really and honestly think that companies will abandon Windows for iPads or macs? I find that extremely unlikely for reasons that I think we already know (iPads are not good for productivity, I doubt companies will shell extra $$$ for Macs). Companies being wary of a brand new Windows release is nothing new. Remember when Windows XP came out? People and companies hated it initially. The article's comparison to Windows 7 is funny because it failed to say how most of these companies who looked forward to upgrading were running an OS that was 8 years old! (XP - the same one they initially claimed they would not use)

2. I don't buy the fact that most people think that they can get away wit just having an iPad. Most people that I know use an iPad as a SECONDARY device. It is more fun than a laptop for consuming content. Sure. But what if you have to actually, you know, do some work? This is basically Windows 8 / Surface's entire value proposition. One device to work AND play.

3. Why is the article ignoring the fact that most people won't feel comfortable spending ~$1,300 on an Apple computer when they could get an HP or something for $600 or even less? Let us not forget the fact that not everyone can shell out the money for a Mac.

My 2 (3?) cents :)

For what it's worth, I think Win 8 acceptance will be molasses slow. Win 8 will affect Android's share not Apple's. I have a newer ICS tablet and I still prefer my IPad Gen 1. ICS feels slow despite having a much faster processor.

Windows 8 is designed for a touchscreen.

This seems to be the TL;DR of many reviews. If this becomes 'common wisdom', which looks likely, then I think MS are going to lose a lot of people on the upgrade train as this guy suggests.